The Shocking Truth:
- Distracted driving is the number one killer in American teens.
- Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough to cover the length of a football field.
- Using a cell phone while driving, whether it’s handheld or hands-free, delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a BAC of .08%
- The age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the under-20 age group. 16% of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving.
- Drivers who use hand-held devices are 4x as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.
- 60% of drivers use cell phones while driving.
- 57% of drivers rate themselves as a better than average driver.
- 34% of teens who drive while distracted don’t think anything bad will happen to them.
- 22% of teens who drive while distracted say it makes driving less boring.
- 35% of teens who drive while distracted don’t think they’ll get hurt.
- 20% of teens who share vehicles had texted while driving, compared to 35% who own their own cars.
- 77% of young adult drivers are very/somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving.
- 49% of adults say they have been passengers in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phones.
- 36% of teens say that they have been involved in a near-crash because of their own or someone else’s distracted driving.
How Can You Stop Texting & Driving?
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind: when you’re in the car, put your phone where you can’t get it, somewhere where you won’t be tempted to check it.
- Silence is Golden: Turn off all notifications. The less you hear your phone, the less tempted you will be to check it.
- Designate a Texter: Ask your passenger to text for you while you drive.
If you are interested in having us speak at your child’s school as a part of our Commit to Quit texting and driving program, please visit: https://lawampm.com/community-relations/commit-to-quit Get all the facts here: http://www.stoptextsstopwrecks.org/#home Image provided by: www.stoptextsstopwrecks.org